WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.

LEADERSHIP TIPS“The crux of leadership development that works is self-directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both.” Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee (Harvard Business School Press)

We live in hurried times. We value going all out all the time to achieve audacious goals.

However, non-stop work backfires. The American Institute of Stress reports that job pressures are the biggest source of tension for Americans, costing an estimated $300 billion a year in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity, and medical, legal and insurance fees.

Although this stress epidemic is not new, the question of what to do about it has become more urgent than ever.

We need a reprieve from the constant pressure to achieve, produce and consume. In her new book, expert Marilyn Paul, Ph.D. urges all to seek "An Oasis in Time."

The solution for this chronic sense of pressure lies in the ancient tradition of the Sabbath. But it's not just your normal day off: The idea is that for one day, or maybe half a day or just an hour once a week, you set aside your doing-for-doing mind, your-it's-never-enough mind, and your crazy nonstop trying to-control-things mind. You enter a true oasis. You can start with an hour a week...and with practice, let go of the feeling that there is something else to be done.

"Years ago, I worked very hard, but ineffectively," says Dr. Paul. "I was very grateful to discover Sabbath history: a day of rest each week. It changed my life and I wanted to share how valuable it is with friends, family and leaders so that everyone could find a way to include it in their lives."

Design your oasis time when you've been moving quickly but haven't allowed yourself to stop...you haven't taken a break...you've been ignoring your need to rest. In the distance, you see an oasis, a pool surrounded by sturdy palm trees with ample fronds. It's lovely and green, a colorful sight for your sore eyes that have been scanning the desert for dangers and opportunities. The knowledge that you are on the way to respite and refreshment gives you a spark of energy. You draw closer to the oasis, and you already feel better as you anticipate the pleasures of the sustenance to come.

You stay there for an hour or so. You leave suffused with new energy. You get a break.

In the cognitive sciences there is a phenomenon known as the Pygmalion effect.

Also known as the Rosenthal effect for one the psychologists who discovered it, the phenomenon is simple enough: It reveals that higher expectations lead to better performance. The phenomenon is more than a theory; it has been demonstrated in the lab.

So why don't we expect more from ourselves?

This can be especially difficult if we're already good at something, since then we can have difficulty imagining how much better we could be.

The result is that we limit our expectations, which in turn is how we limit our disappointments. If we expect much, we are often disappointed. To avoid that, we lower our expectations. He or she who expects little and gets little is never disappointed.

One of the keys to continual improvement is the willingness to risk disappointment, to see disappointment not as a bad thing to be avoided but as proof positive we are aiming higher and striving to get better.

"The Potential Principle" by author Mark Sanborn is about unlocking your imagination to pursue more of your potential. And when you do that, your best just keeps getting better.

If a business person goes home frustrated, if they talk with their significant other about it, if they lay awake at night stewing about it, inevitably the problem is some person at work--a colleague, subordinate, or boss.

Handling people issues is every leader's major headache. It's what takes up the majority of their time and--more important--the bulk of their head space. Every leader can and must develop this most important of all management skills.

"THE POWER OF PEOPLE SKILLS" is the permanent solution to your chronic people problems. This book will teach you that there's one primary difference between a great culture and a poor one: a great culture insists on having star players in every key seat, and a poor culture tolerates under performers.

Getting the right people in the key seats is your most important job as a leader. If you're not sure that a person is right, you need to pass.

You need to know one thing up-front.

Someone right now is sitting in a boardroom somewhere trying to devise a plan to poach stars from you. That's typically how stars end up leaving.

There's danger everywhere! I can't count the number of people who have been recruited by a savvy owner or CEO while having a casual conversation at some social event or work-related function.

Organizations around the world spend billions of dollars every year to awaken and engage their employees.

Yet, global employee engagement remains fixed--at a low 13 percent. The acceleration of change each year leaves more and more front-line workers paralyzed trying to keep up.

"The disengagement problem usually begins with the CEO telling human resources to fix it," says author David Harder. "But unless the CEO or business owner takes charge of engagement, it's a useless battle."

In "The Workplace Engagement Solution", Harder examines how the root of engagement is based at the individual recognizing and learning how to change and successfully respond to change. Many books treat employee engagement as a chronic disease from an elitist approach, where as this new book cracks the code and solves the problem.